Black Out

A hybrid gangster-comedy very much in the style of British director Guy Ritchie's violent farces, Black Out is a jaunty Dutch thriller full of fun plot twists. Raymond Thiry stars as Jos, a former cocaine dealer now living an ordinary life, who is set to marry the lovely Caroline (Kim van Kooten), a woman unaware of his checkered past. With a wedding-day tuxedo hanging in his closet, Jos awakens to find a gun in his hand, a dead man in his bed, and no memory of the past few days. What follows is a crazy maze of drug deals, double-crosses, murders, betrayals, and lots of surprises as Jos tries to recall how he got into this fix and figure out how he's going to get out of it in time to make it to the altar. Director Arne Toonen handles everything with a brisk clip and tongue-in-cheek wickedness, tossing in a number of memorable characters (e.g., a mob boss too old to maintain his reputation for cruelty) and changing up expectations at every turn. Black Out may be heavily derivative of other voguish crime movies, but it runs like clockwork. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director Arne Toonen, Toonen's 2009 short “Oh Deer” (13 min.), a blooper reel (8 min.), an image gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an entertaining thriller.] (T. Keogh)